Tout un hiver sans feu
One Long Winter Without Fire
Switzerland / Poland, September 2004
FILM,
Fiction,
91 min.
- directed by
- Greg Zglinski
- Written by
- Pierre-Pascal Rossi
- Status
- In distribution
- Website
- www.cabproductions.ch
The muted winter landscapes of the Swiss Jura mountains mingle fire and ice, mourning and music to interweave two stories of life and love as delicate as the falling snow. The desperate silent tragedy of Jean and Laure, still in shock at the loss of their little girl in a terrible barn fire, plunges the couple into a bleak endless winter of unspeakable grief. Laure is interned for a period to be treated in a clinic. Jean is left to face the harsh, cold and seemingly futile task of trying to eke out a living on the farm on his own.
Though their love is no longer nourished by any inner fire, this element seems hauntingly omnipresent in the world outside. Jean, in fact, finds a job in a foundry and spends his days before the furnaces of its leaping flames, as if in constant reminder of the past. Yet, fire is also a source of warmth and comfort, an essential life giving element. At the foundry Jean meets a young Kosovar woman, Labinota, a refugee who has fled the horrors of war. She lives with her own personal grief as she hopes against all hope for the return of a husband who has been missing for six years.
As the dead of winter is brightened up by the festivites of Christmas and New Year's, Jean is drawn into Labinota's family and her world of refugees. Through the simple everyday joys of friendship, conversation, a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of wine, music, they are courageously putting together the pieces of a normal life again. A subtle kind of love, based upon solidarity and rooted in a mutual desire to live again, is sparked between Jean and Labinota. Yet Jean's wife Laure is also regaining her strength and the courage to accept the past. And she now realizes she may be losing the only person who will make her truly want to live again.
credits
- World Premiere
- September 2004
- Original Version
- French, colour, 35mm, 91 min.
- Production
- CAB Productions SA, Mars Entertainment, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, STI Studio Filmowe, RTBF - Radio Télévision Belge Francophone, ARTE G.E.I.E., TVP Telewizja Polska S.A
- Producer
- Gérard Ruey, Jean-Louis Porchet
- directed by
- Greg Zglinski
- Written by
- Pierre-Pascal Rossi
- Cinematography
- Witold Plociennik
- Editing
- Urszula Lesiak
- Music
- Jacek Grudzien, Mariusz Ziemba
- Location Sound Mix
- Luc Cuveele, Michal Kosterkiewicz
- Production Design
- Pia Gans de St. Pré
- Lighting Design
- Samy Emery
Cast
Marie Matheron
Gabriela Muskala
Blerim Gjoci
Nathalie Boulin
Antonio Buíl
Michel Voïta
World Sales / World Rights
- World Sales
- Adriana Chiesa Enterprises Srl
Worldwide Distribution
- Switzerland
- Filmcoopi Zürich AG Distribution
Awards
(a selection)
- Bozner Filmtage, Preis des Landes Südtirol für den besten Spielfilm im Wettbewerb 2005 (Winner)
- Bozner Filmtage, Publikumspreis der Stadt Bozen 2005 (Winner)
- Namur, Festival international du film francophone, Prix du public de la Ville de Namur 2005 (Winner)
- Venice, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica, Cinemavvenire Award for Best Feature Film 2004 (Winner)
- Venice, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica, Grand Prix Signis for Best Film 2004 (Winner)
- Solothurn, Bundesamt für Kultur, Swiss Film Award, Best Fiction Film 2005 (Winner)
Festivals
(a selection)
-
7th Tofifest International Film Festival Torun
26.06.2009 - 03.07.2009 -
Pyongyang International Film Festival
17.09.2008 - 26.09.2008 -
Annonay, 24e Festival International du Premier Film Annonay
02.02.2007 - 12.02.2007 -
San Francisco, 49th San Francisco International Film Festival
20.04.2006 - 04.05.2006 -
Bangkok International Film Festival
17.02.2006 - 28.02.2006 -
Saarbrücken, 27. Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis
23.01.2006 - 29.01.2006 -
Palm Springs, Palm Springs International Film Festival
05.01.2006 - 16.01.2006 -
12th Osaka European Film Festival
18.11.2005 - 23.11.2005 -
Seville, Sevilla Festival de Cine Europeo y Contemporáneo
04.11.2005 - 12.11.2005 -
Vancouver, 24th Vancouver International Film Festival
29.09.2005 - 14.10.2005
-
Namur, 20e Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur
23.09.2005 - 30.09.2005 -
Hamburg, 13. Filmfest Hamburg
22.09.2005 - 29.09.2005 -
Der Neue Heimatfilm
24.08.2005 - 28.08.2005 -
Copenhagen, Copenhagen International Film Festival
18.08.2005 - 28.08.2005 -
Edinburgh, Edinburgh International Film Festival
17.08.2005 - 28.08.2005 -
Locarno, 58. Festival internazionale del film Locarno
03.08.2005 - 13.08.2005 -
Karlovy Vary, 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
01.07.2005 - 09.07.2005 -
Sochi, 12. International Film Festival Sochi
04.06.2005 - 17.06.2005 -
Cannes, 45e Marché du Film
12.05.2005 - 22.05.2005 -
Bozner Filmtage
13.04.2005 - 17.04.2005 -
EFM European Film Market
10.02.2005 - 20.02.2005 -
Gothenburg, 28th Göteborg Film Festival
28.01.2005 - 07.02.2005 -
Solothurn, Solothurner Filmtage
24.01.2005 - 30.01.2005 -
49. Semana Internacional de Cine
22.10.2004 - 30.10.2004 -
Venice, 61. Mostra International d'Arte Cinematografica
01.09.2004 - 11.09.2004